


AaCW: Opening Ceremonies

by loosenyourcorset



Series: Adventures at Camp Wildflower [1]
Category: Tiny Meat Gang (Band), Video Blogging RPF
Genre: Alternate Universe - Summer Camp, Gen, M/M, Noel is kind of a little shit at first, Summer, Summer Camp, fetus tmg really
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-06
Updated: 2019-07-06
Packaged: 2020-06-22 05:56:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,494
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19661221
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/loosenyourcorset/pseuds/loosenyourcorset
Summary: Cody has grown up in Arkansas. He's gone to the same summer camp at the edge of town every year.Noel did not grow up in Arkansas. This is his first year at this camp.I bring to youAdventures at Camp Wildflower, a coming of age story between two outcasts who bring new meaning to each other's lives.





	AaCW: Opening Ceremonies

**Author's Note:**

> A few things before you read:
> 
> \- I know the city is not real. It's fictitious so I can build the world around them to fit the story.  
> \- It's not meant to represent real life necessarily - yes it's Cody & Noel but they're essentially just characters here.  
> \- That's all. Hope you enjoy :)

Morgan's Plateau, Arkansas, looked just about the way that its name suggested it might. The town was sprawled out over a flat landscape, but in every direction you could spot mountains miles off. Anyone driving through the town might think that they had time traveled; the architecture didn't seem to have escaped the 1950s, the road going through the heart of the town was still named Main Street, and there was a rusted, old red wagon outside of the post office advertising its uses to the city's children. A sun-bleached, faded sticker of a little boy and his dog was stuck in the middle of it next to some words that read _"Ask your mom or dad to buy you a Radio Flyer Wagon today, only two dollars!"_

Half a mile away, in a suburb entitled Sherry Gardens, a family of four lived. It was practically nuclear. Mom, dad, sister, and brother. We'll just be focusing on that brother, whose name was Cody. At thirteen, he was bright. A little short for his age, but no one seemed to make as big a fuss over it out in Arkansas as people in major cities did. One time his family had gone to New York on vacation. His name was used a lot less than the cheeky "short stuff" people often used to refer to him. Beyond bright, he was also athletic. He could kick or toss or catch or hit nearly any kind of ball, but he had more of a soft spot for being in the water than anything else. And he could use a board, too - skate, surf, snow. It didn't matter. For all of the times he had fallen down a flight of stairs (or had just fallen in general, really), he was surprisingly graceful and light on his feet.

It was June 1st and Cody was preparing the last of his bags for the summer. Camp Wildflower called his name, like it had done every year prior to this one since he was about seven years old. He had to wonder if thirteen was a little too old to be interested in going to camp, but then he remembered that he always saw people there who were seventeen, eighteen years old. Since the camp wouldn't let you attend past the age of eighteen, kids were always being phased out in order to make room for new ones. Originally it had been his parents' idea for him to go. They said he needed to socialize more, and not only at whatever sports practice he was attending on any given afternoon. So he went. As it turns out, Cody kind of had a knack for camp life. He took to it like it was second nature. Building fires, canoeing, playing capture the flag. He didn't even find bunking in a room of twelve boys to be too horrible, although the camp was coed and he was sure that the girls' cabins were a touch more lovely than the boys'.

The camp wasn't far from the center of Morgan's Plateau. About 15 miles, right on the very edge of the town itself. The town wasn't known for much, but it was very proud of its summer camp. The camp was like a beacon to the rest of the country. Kids from all over attended every year, and Cody kind of felt lucky that he lived close enough to be able to return each summer. He had become a regular, and he knew the other regulars, even becoming close friends with a couple of them. He still liked meeting the newcomers, because he could always recall how big and almost scary the camp seemed to him when he had first joined.

Every year, Camp Wildflower had a theme. The welcome sign always reflected that, and Cody had to keep a little groan from leaving his mouth when his family's car drove past it. _Camp Wildflower's Got Talent!_ sort of hinted at what he'd been dreading for the last two years. There had been talks of a talent themed year, and he had to hold back his worry now that it had finally come true. What kind of talent did he even possess, he had to wonder?

The car passed kids of all ages from many different places. A lot he recognized and a lot that he didn't. By the time he said goodbye to his parents - they had to leave quick if they wanted to get his little sister off to dance camp - he had already been assigned a cabin and bunk. Bed #9 in the Dandelion Cabin. Sometimes he thought that they chose the name of the camp just so that it would be easy to name the cabins, but he never found it necessary to ask. He was lugging off his three bags to the cabin with a few other boys, Counselor... what? He checked the name tag and that couldn't be right, could it?

"We can't seriously be expected to call you that, right?" Cody piped up, jogging ahead to catch up to his assigned counselor, who was leading the few of them. "Counselor Captain Avocado?" he pressed incredulously. They'd never done any weird name tag thing in the past, so he was a little lost.

The counselor laughed. "Nah. It's just for fun. Tonight at opening ceremonies we're supposed to reveal our real names to everyone after playing this guessing game. Kinda weird but it's just an icebreaker," he shrugged.

Cody fell back and decided once and for all that, yeah, adults were kinda strange.

The walk to the Dandelion Cabin wasn't too far away from the main building, which doubled as the rec room and dining hall. He found his bed easily enough, plopping his bags on it for the time being. Camp was three months long and he would have plenty of time to unpack later. The three or four other boys he'd walked with found their beds too, but none of them were taking the bunk above his own. He strayed away from it to check the cabin out.

It was large and open, with lots of room to sit and chat or play games if they wanted to. There was a television in the corner of the room that, he assumed, were for movie nights. It was so old that it had a VCR with a stack of VHS tapes lying next to it on the floor. _Footloose_ , _Back to the Future_ , and _Ghostbusters_ were among the titles. "Nothing new, then," he muttered to himself. The bathroom was fairly spacious and he checked his teeth for food fragments in the mirror, his new braces being the absolute bane of his existence. When he popped back out into the main area, bags were thrown on the bed above his but the cabin was empty. They must have gone outside or walked back, and...well, Cody was nothing if not curious. He couldn't help himself, walking over and climbing the short ladder. He rooted around, not opening the bags because he wasn't a spy or anything, simply looking for a name written down on a tag or something.

His fingers pulled at a white strip of laminated paper, attached by a string to one of the bags. "Noel M.," he spoke. "Wonder what the M is for."

"Miller."

The voice responding behind him nearly gave Cody a heart attack, and he let out a little yelp of surprise before falling backwards off of the ladder. Thankfully it wasn't too far of a drop, but it sucked just the same.

"Going through my stuff?" asked the same voice.

"I'm _fine_ , thanks," Cody replied, rolling his eyes as he stood up and dusted himself off. He looked for a face to attach to the voice, and also the name, and his eyes finally settled on a boy not too much taller than him. He didn't look to be much older, either. "And no, I wasn't. I was just...you know. Being nosy," he shrugged. "Sorry. You don't look like a Miller, though."

Noel scoffed, letting out a laugh. "What is a Miller supposed to look like?" he questioned, albeit rhetorically, one eyebrow raising because he had to know how ridiculous that sounded. "A name in return would be nice, O Intrusive One."

Cody frowned. This was usually not how he liked to make impressions on new campers, and it was so obvious that this guy was a new camper. He had on brand new - _white!_ \- sneakers, nice jeans, and his hair was perfectly positioned on the top of his head. Had he never been to camp before, or something? "'M not intrusive," he mumbled, crossing his arms. "I'm Cody. I've never seen you around here before."

"Nice to meet you, Cody. You wouldn't have, 'cause I've never been here before."

Okay. This guy was kind of, like, annoying. It was hard to annoy Cody, but this Noel kid was starting to manage it like it was his own personal job.

"Obviously," he replied. "You came dressed for a picnic. This is _camp_ , dude."

This statement caused Noel to look down at his outfit, huffing at the fact that Cody was right. Maybe he wasn't really dressed for dirt or outdoor activities, but...he looked good. That counted, right? "First you try to get all up in my belongings, now you're ragging on my 'fit? This is unbelievable. What happened to southern hospitality?" he asked, making a face in Cody's direction.

"I'm from Canada originally," Cody said in response, causing Noel to shake his head and walk right out of the cabin without another word.

Cody - 1, Noel - 0.

✰

Later, all of the campers are corralled into the dining hall and given a choice of snacks. Cody chose popcorn, because it was the good kind made from a popcorn machine and that awful oil that tasted so incredible but was probably chock full of chemicals. They were all grouped up by cabin, but he was fairly certain that his bunk mate was purposely avoiding him and standing behind another of their group members instead. As soon as everyone had gotten a snack, they were lined up and marched down to the large outdoor amphitheater in front of the lake. It was gorgeous, actually, watching the sun setting on the water like that. The fire pit in the very front was lit, and the counselors were milling about and waiting for everyone to pick a spot and sit down.

Despite his efforts to remain unseen, Noel ended up sitting next to Cody on one of the wooden logs that were cut in half to serve as seating. Most of the others had been taken, and he would have been sitting too far away from his group if he took an open one somewhere else. Cody looked over at him and he looked back out of instinct, but the pair didn't speak. Instead, they sat there in silence while the counselors started this name guessing game that Cody still thought was stupid. Neither of them participated, but it was sort of funny to watch the other campers try and fail to guess at the names.

When their own assigned counselor made his way to the front of the crowd, campers threw out any kind of name they could think of. "You're never going to guess it," he said, shaking his head as the other counselors chuckled. Eventually the kids gave up. "My name is Ferdinand. But you can all call me Counselor F, if it's easier."

Some of the kids were shocked, and Cody had to admit he would never have suspected that. He felt a nudge on his arm, Noel's elbow bumping into him as he leaned over to mutter quietly, "Honestly, I think I'd have preferred Captain Avocado." Cody couldn't help but laugh, and it felt like that small interaction had done a little work to erase their potential beef from earlier.

After the ridiculous name game, the campers were lead in some fun Camp Wildflower songs. Most of them Cody knew by heart, and he could feel Noel judging him for singing along like a plebeian. "You'll learn'em by the end of camp. You'll probably even end up singing them too," he had teased, sharing the popcorn out of his bag when Noel offered him a pretzel from his own. "Fat chance," had left Noel's mouth, but he knew that Cody's words were probably true.

It was 9 p.m. by the time the opening ceremonies ended, and Noel didn't shy away from Cody on the walk back this time. They talked a little bit about summer camps - Cody's repeat offenses by returning to Camp Wildflower every year, and how this was Noel's first time going to one ever.

"Feels a bit silly to be going to camp at fourteen," he had said, but he too noticed that he was far from the only teenager there.

Lights out was 10 o'clock, but on the first night Cody always felt too wired to sleep. He had coordinated with Noel about which drawers were going to be theirs in the dresser next to their bunk bed (he got the two bottom ones because he was younger and shorter, of course), and he was still interested in getting to know him a little bit more. So instead of trying to sleep, he waited for Counselor F to go to bed. He had his own room in the cabin, being an adult and all. When he was gone, Cody slid out of bed and stood on his tiptoes to see if Noel was awake, but he could barely see in the dark.

"Noel," he loudly whispered, reaching out to poke his shoulder with his index finger. "Are you sleeping?"

The answer should have been obvious, and Cody was about to give up when Noel said, "Yes."

Cody held in a snicker. "Wanna play twenty questions?"

"...Okay. But I get to go first," Noel decided, and Cody agreed after getting Noel to vow that he would whisper loud enough so that Cody could hear him when he laid back down in his own bed.

A minute later, Noel had thought up the perfect thing for Cody to try and guess. "Alright, go ahead. I'll give you the first one free, it's an animal," he said, holding in a laugh at feeling so clever for thinking of Ferdinand the bull. A moment of silence passed, and Noel worried that Cody hadn't heard him so he repeated himself.

Another moment.

"Cody?" he asked, to which he only received pure radio silence, the sound of crickets from all around the campground being the only noise that filled his ears. When he leaned over the side of his bunk, dipping down just enough in order to see Cody now that his eyes had adjusted to the dark, he frowned. There he was, covered up and snoring, completely asleep already.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! Leave some kudos or a comment if you feel so inclined :)


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